Newgeography: The Luxury City vs. the Middle ClassIf you think you noticed this during the boom times, you were most likely not mistaken. In many cities in the US, the city is reserved as the exclusive province of the unattached - those with no children or grown children - who would merely consume the fabulous bounty of consumable goods and services the city would provide. As middle class families leave cities behind, only the poor and the affluent remain.

Newgeography.com: Euroburbia: A Personal ViewEurope has sprawling suburbs too, despite what romantic urbanists may wish to believe. Social stratification is alive and well for many of the same reasons it is alive and well in America.

December 14, 2009

The growth in Seattle’s downtown areas over the past few years, even during the worst of the financial crisis, has been remarkable. Two large cities, Seattle and Bellevue, are both forests of cranes and have been for years.

Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, which was created in an early 20th century hill-flattening, has been given over from a mix of low-slung warehouses and old residences to apartments, condominiums, and corporate headquarters. As Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood prepares for the coming of underground light rail, increased height limits on main street Broadway Ave look to create a new urban canyon.

And yet there is one neighborhood in Seattle that simply can’t catch a break. Pioneer Square, the original Seattle neighborhood, has been well preserved over the years but largely stagnant.

Pioneer Square features a mix of boutiques and art galleries, a subway stop, and plenty of restaurants. At night it is home to a considerable number of nightclubs catering almost exclusively to people from outside the neighborhood – in part because not a lot of people live in Pioneer Square. This lack of regular residents and basic services for the residents who do live in the neighborhood creates a vacuum of the kind of workaday street life that makes a good urban neighborhood feel safe and vibrant.

One of the most famous bookstores on the west coast today, Pioneer Square’s Elliott Bay Book Company, will be moving to Capitol Hill in spring of 2010. This, more than anything else, represents the decline of the neighborhood. Such a close, well-connected neighborhood should not be suffering as Pioneer Square does. Physically, Pioneer Square is in fine shape and is home to many well-maintained, beautiful buildings.

Problems frequently cited with the neighborhood center around a large homeless presence, open drug dealing, rambunctious behavior by partiers, and not enough parking.

Some more law and order certainly would help, but Pioneer Square is an old neighborhood. It has a high concentration of homeless services. It is adjacent to sports stadiums, and features a lot bars and nightclubs. It already possesses a bawdy reputation going back to the turn of the century. In short, perception can be a blessing as well as a curse. With more of its own residents, and more visitors from in-city, Pioneer Square would be able to live beyond its reputation.

Which brings us to the main point – Pioneer Square is inconveniently located. It is at the bottom of a hill, in a part of town without plentiful parking. While it has a subway stop, for years before the light rail opened the tunnel closed at 7 pm and wasn’t even open on Sundays. It would be interesting to see if more people have visited from South Seattle neighborhoods conveniently located to light rail since the line opened. When access opens to Capitol Hill and the U-District in 2016, Pioneer Square may hit a sweet spot of being very convenient both to live and to visit for people who don’t want or need a car.

What should happen between now and then? Probably the best thing that could happen, is for people in Seattle who care about the neighborhood to find ways to visit and patronize the businesses in daytime and early evening hours. These are the hours when a lack of legitimate users will kill any hope a neighborhood has of feeling “normal”. The city should get serious about putting more cops on the street with a focus on after dark hours.

Pioneer Square may also want to try non-sports related special events on summer days and evenings when no sporting events are scheduled. Occidental Ave is a natural to be given over to street fairs, and some side streets could be narrowed, with wider sidewalks encouraging cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating.

Finding ways to bring Seattleites in regularly is what it will take to build the kind of critical mass that will keep Pioneer Square viable. Seattle’s founding neighborhood deserves no less.

December 02, 2009

Note: This post was published over two years ago, and was horribly out of date. So it's been updated. Reno's come a long way in two years. This post will be featured for a while and eventually updated again.

This page breaks Reno out by neighborhoods and describes them in terms of what you will find there. One thing that makes Reno truly great is its neighborhoods, of sufficient age and variety that they can even be broken down in terms of sub –neighborhoods.

DowntownDowntown proper that is. I'd say it's bounded by I-80 on the north, Liberty St on the south and by Arlington and Evans, west and east. Downtown’s skyline is pretty visually appealing from a large number of vantage points in the city. While it isn’t perfect, downtown is the epicenter of Reno’s ongoing efforts to improve its urban environment, and is worth a look. If you’re staying downtown while visiting, look here for what to do when you get tired of being inside the building.

Casino District At the north end of this part of town, you’ll find the major casino entity in Reno, which consists of Eldorado, Silver Legacy, and Circus Circus. Nearby, and next to a dreadful looking block of buildings (we’re sorry, we’re working on it!) is the original Harrah’s property. Well, not really, but for all intents and purposes, yes (the original Harrah’s casino was across the street). For some real Reno casino experiences, visit The Little Nugget, mid-block on Virginia Street south of Commercial Row, and Club Cal Neva, which will be unmissable. At the former, have a good cocktail from the bar. The Little Nugget is a slot parlor and is most famous as the home of The Awful Awful, a hamburger with a convoluted enough history, suffice to say, The Little Nugget can claim the title of home. At the latter… well, go inside. This is what gamblin’ looked like for a long time.

WeFi “WeFi” is the name that was given by a publicity-stirring resident of the hippest part of downtown, which is located at West and First Streets, right next to Wingfield Park and the River Walk. Whatever you want to call it (lots of locals sneer at “WeFi” but I kinda like it), it’s a nice place to go walking around, especially in the daytime. The merchant’s association calls it the Riverwalk District.

Not long ago, the Reno Redevelopment Agency created a Public Market on West Street between First and Second Streets in some beautiful old buildings. While this is a nascent project, in warmer months especially the market spills out onto the street during the day and becomes a bona fide farmer’s market, toward the end of the week. Special events also occur regularly here, and there is a great wine bar for tastings in a friendly atmosphere.

High rise housing is clustered around this area, bounded on the north by a project called Montage, a recent full scale renovation of a former casino, which as of this writing is not on the best financial footing due to the real estate bust. A recent project right on the river called Palladio is the building with the green pitched roof. Riverwalk, Arlington and Park Towers are all clustered around the river between Arlington and West streets, with Park Tower on the south bank of the Truckee.

East Fourth Street This is Reno's classic strip o' bars at night. There are a number of long neglected buildings here just begging for someone to come use them for something modern. At the same time, there is work that needs to be done in this area as well if it is to be really worthy of investment. The streetscape is due for improvement.

East Fourth Street does have its afforementioned nightlife. Nightlife institutions like Lincoln Lounge, Club Underground, Davidson’s Distillery, Abby’s Old Highway 40, Treehouse Lounge, and Studio on 4th play host to a variety of events – everything from bikers to all ages open mic nights.

Also on East Fourth Street is Louis’ Basque Corner, and Casale’s Halfway Club restaurant – which is not a halfway house, but rather is halfway between Reno and Sparks. Or something. Classic American kitchen Italian. Basque food in Reno is legendary.

Ballpark District In Fall of 2007, something local leaders had been hoping and praying would happen finally happened.

A few years before that, a surcharge on rental cars was begun, and that money pooled into an account, to be used for the construction of a true AAA Minor League baseball stadium in Reno to accommodate a team – which needed to be found.

Some businessmen from out of town appeared with access to money, and those businessmen managed, in the span of a little over a year, to clear several buildings, including Reno’s main fire station, off a plot of land on the east side of downtown, and raised up a beautiful minor league ballpark, bought and relocated a team and had butts in seats cheering like crazy by Spring, 2009, for the inaugural season of the Reno Aces. Lake and First is a good place to start.

Good thing, too, because this part of downtown was looking pretty rough. A landmark building had burned down, and so a once vibrant part of town had been reduced to a bunch of empty lots. Those empty lots are filling up again. As of this writing, construction is underway on the second phase of the ballpark project, to include an entertainment complex, as well as a new transit center for downtown.

This district is also home to Santa Fe Hotel, another of Reno’s classic Basque restaurants. I’ll leave it to you to choose a favorite.

Conclusion More investment is needed in the downtown area to unlock its full potential, but it’s already a lot of fun – and shows one way that Reno is truly The Biggest Little City.

MidtownPeople in Reno can sometimes be a little skeptical when people try to call their neighborhood something fancy. But one name that seems to have caught on with people is Midtown. Midtown refers to the area of town between Plumb Lane to the south, and Liberty Street to the north, just south of downtown. It’s truly a descriptive name, so that’s probably why people like it.

Midtown has two distinct neighborhoods hanging off of it, that share great common features, but are distinct in their own right. The two main streets of Midtown are South Virginia Street and Wells Ave.

Wells AveMy original, and current, Reno home. This strip of mostly commercial development punctuated by old houses and the odd apartment building is an old main street and recently underwent a community driven renovation. The road was narrowed and bike lanes were added. Street furniture, landscaping, and decorative lighting were installed, and public art was installed.

Wells Ave has become home to a considerable number of Latino businesses over the past several years. It’s also home to some great old bars, and an old bank (today a US Bank) that was once a church. While not necessarily a great pedestrian destination for tourists (the businesses are very neighborhood oriented), nonetheless south of Stewart Street, it’s pleasant to look at and has great views of the whole city and the mountains.

South Virginia Street This is the stretch of South Virginia, Reno’s definite main street, bounded by Plumb Lane on the south and Liberty St on the north. This is where the zany antique malls, adult boutiques, cutting edge design studios, thrift shops, bars, nightclubs (including a gay bar), ethnic restaurants, and more other food options than I can recount, all seem to happily coexist.

South Virginia Street is in line to be rehab’ed in something called the Complete Street Project. South Virginia is home to Reno’s high capacity, high frequency BRT bus line RTC RAPID, and by November of 2010 it is expected that BRT stations, with level boarding platforms, will exist on Virginia, and streetscape improvements will have begun.

Today, South Virginia Street is a desolate place for pedestrians. Sidewalks in some places are about 2 feet wide. Yet it is undeniably urban, and undeniably: if you like cities and the kinds of funky yet safe things cities tend to have among their accoutrements, you will like this street.

University The area around the University of Nevada, Reno, is an old residential neighborhood. UNR, as the locals call it, is also referred to as Nevada in NCAA sports.

The UNR campus is a great place to walk around, and if you don’t mind living in a neighborhood full of college students, you could do worse than to live in the neighborhood on the hill to the west of the university.

Old Southwest Driving through the leafy streets of Reno’s Old Southwest, it’s easy to imagine living there. The would be resident will be limited by the size of the pocketbook, however. It’s going to be really important here. A few main streets of this neighborhood are Plumas Street, Arlington Ave, and Mt Rose Street. The Old Southwest is the residential part of Reno with the most charming houses, mansions built when your grandparents were kids (around Newlands Circle on California Ave), leafy streets and interestingly enough, largely not a lot of pretense about the whole affair. Along the eastern edge, the border with Midtown, owners turn to tenants, a few apartment buildings emerge here and there.

California Avenue The merchants like to call this street “CalAve” – and this is another designation that locals frequently sneer at. You can just say “on California” and people will know what you’re talking about. California Avenue is an edge between downtown and Old Southwest – and is a district main street of both but more closely resembles the latter.

On California you’ll find boutiques and great places to have lunch, a nightlife institution called Biggest Little City Club, as well as the marvelous St James Infirmary, and provided you’re not too late in the evening, The Chocolate Bar.

California is also located adjacent to two Reno institutions you need to know about: Peg’s Glorified Ham ‘n Eggs (Sierra and Liberty), what might possibly be the best breakfast you can get at a restaurant, and Nevada Museum of Art (Liberty and Flint), a Will Bruder designed building opened in 2003 as the new home of an institution, the state’s only accredited art museum, which has been going for decades.

Idlewild ParkIt’s worth taking a brief moment to acknowledge the wonderful Idlewild Park. This park is the confluence of western downtown (not covered here yet), and Old Southwest charm. From Wingfield Park downtown, head toward the green mountains (the Sierra) along Riverside Drive, cross the river at Booth Street, and follow the signs to Idlewild Park. This is a great walk just about any day of the year.

Conclusion There’s a lot more of Reno to cover on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. But so many of the charms of the community are laid out here, that if you’re in search of what makes Reno Reno, you’ll hopefully find them with this guide. Good luck in the Biggest Little City.